Category: Food

The other day, I spent a few hours at Chapters looking through their cookbooks.

I’ve been trying to find a guide to teach me how to cook, rather than hand me recipes. I don’t like the recipes found in most books because they tend to call for a bunch of expensive ingredients I’d only ever use the once. This just doesn’t work for me. I’d much rather the ability to look at what I have on hand, and figure out from there how I can combine them to produce something edible.

The exception for me has been baking and grandmother recipe books, which tend to reconstitute the same few set of ingredients in imaginative and delicious new ways. If you dear reader have any recommendations on good learning materials, I would love to hear them. Tina suggested the cooking show Good Eats with Alton Brown, which I’m absolutely loving.

Anyways, back at Chapters. I was paging through a bunch of books and stumbled on a really neat recipe idea: apple pie pancakes. So I promptly took a photo of the page with my phone and went home to give it a shot.

It did not turn all that well. It was supposed to be a pancake with apple pie filling on top, but I ended up with it all mixed up together. The way they did it in the book was to cook it all in a single pan, so I decided to rework the recipe and use two pans.

I wrote directions for myself and tried it again this morning. Much better: delicious and pleasing to the eye. I’ve included them below, but can be summed up as made apple pie filling, dumped it on a pancake.

Apple Pie Pancakes RECIPE

This makes two servings. Approximately 450 calories per serving.

Summary: First, we’ll prepare two bowls worth of stuff. One bowl will contain the apple slices, the other, the pancake batter. We’ll then dump the contents of these bowls into separate pans and allow them to cook. Once the contents of both pans are cooked, we’ll combine the two on a dish and serve.

Ingredients:

• 1 Apple
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 Cup Milk
• 1/4 Cup Flour
• 4 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon

Apple Slice Bowl: Take two tablespoons of sugar and put it in the bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and mix it well with the sugar. Peel an apple and cut it into slices, then throw the slices in the bowl. Mix the apple slices with the cinnamon sugar concoction so that all the slices get coated.

Batter Bowl: Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the bowl. Microwave the bowl for 15 seconds to melt it. Add the 1/4 cup of flour, and mix it with the butter until it forms a paste. Add the egg and mix it until it’s a single consistency. Add the milk and mix it again until it’s uniform.

Pan #1: Put the pan on medium-low. Add 1.5 tablespoons of butter, and wait for it to melt and bubble. Then add the apple slice mix including any cinnamon sugar left in the bowl. Stir and flip the slices occasionally.

Pan #2: Once the first pan has been cooking with the apple slices for a few minutes, set the element for the second pan to medium-high. Add 1/2 a tablespoon of butter on the pan, and move it around to coat the entire surface. Wait a few minutes for it to melt and bubble, then add half the batter. Wait for it to solidify, then flip it. Take it out and put it on a plate when it becomes golden with brown spots on top. Add the second half of the batter and repeat.

Finishing Touches: Add the apple mix to the top of the pancakes and serve.

I made a snickerdoodle ice cream sandwich today. I used the snickerdoodle recipe from Betty Crocker, substituting 3 tsp of baking powder for the cream of tartar and baking soda. I also substituted vegan buttery spread for the shortening and butter. This latter substitution wasn’t for any culinary reason; I just always buy that stuff rather than butter.

I was quite happy with the results. I also made two attempts at cinnamon biscuits. I used a recipe from a card I found tucked away inside one of my books. The first turned out like little bites. I had rolled the dough in a rectangle and cut thick (inch long) pieces.

For the second go-around, I rolled the dough a square and cut it up thinner.

Cinnamon Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Flour
• 3/4 Cup Milk
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Tbsp Vinegar
• 1 Tbsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 Tsp Baking Soda

Instructions:

• Put the vinegar in a measuring cup. Then put in the milk to the 3/4 line. Leave for five minutes.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Mix it.
• Add in the vegetable oil and the vinegar/milk concoction. Mix it all in until it has the same consistency.
• Put flour on a surface, and place your dough on it. Roll it out until it’s about 40cm long and 20 cm wide.
• Put the butter in a bowl, and microwave it for 45 seconds.
• Lather the now melted butter on the rolled out dough.
• Mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle it on top of the melted butter.
• Set the oven to 400F.
• Slather a bit of butter on a cookie sheet to grease it.
• Roll up the dough.
• Cut up the roll in 2-3cm pieces. Put the pieces, exposed face up, on the cookie sheet.
• Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.